Field
The present disclosure relates to optical communication equipment and, more specifically but not exclusively, to multichannel data transport suitable for direct optical detection at the receiver.
Description of the Related Art
This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the disclosure. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.
For relatively short (e.g., <100 km) optical links encountered in metro-area networks, direct (e.g., square-law) detection of optical signals may offer an attractive alternative to coherent detection because direct detection typically uses fewer active optical components than coherent detection and offers concomitant cost savings. However, adverse effects of chromatic dispersion (CD) may severely limit the maximum transmission distance achievable in direct-detection systems. It is therefore desirable to have an optical transport scheme that supports both direct detection and CD compensation at the receiver.